POLLEN MEIOTIC BEHAVIOR IN RELATION TO PHALAENOPSIS BREEDING

The breeding of Phalaenopsis orchids involves the cross-pollination of two selected parental plants.
Parents with regular meiotic behavior can often produce seeds successfully.
Currently most Phalaenopsis hybrids are obtained after interspecific hybridization.
Unfortunately breeding barriers may occur during the meiotic process thereby affecting fertilization events and reducing seed set.
Through pollen tetrad analysis, a correlation between successful seed set and a high tetrad percentage was observed in both Phalaenopsis and Doritaenopsis orchids.
To improve the breeding of hybrid polyploid cultivars, mitotic inhibitors were applied to young flower buds before pollen meiosis in order to monitor changes in the production of tetrads.
When compared to the control, a higher number of dyads were observed after treatment with mitotic inhibitors.
Treated pollen grains were then attached to the stigma of female parents for self- and cross-pollination, resulting in successful fruit set in several cases.

I International Orchid Symposium

S.C. Hsu, T.C. Cheng, P. Bolaños-Villegas, S.W. Chin, F.C. Chen

Doritaenopsis, mitotic inhibitors, orchids, tetrad analysis

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2010.878.15